Maryland men’s soccer left back Luca Costabile waited to receive a short pass along the far sideline just over five minutes into his team’s clash against No. 14 Indiana.
The senior defender was near midfield and had his back toward the goal, yet Hoosier defender Ben Do delivered a yellow-card-worthy slide tackle that left Costabile writhing on the grass for several minutes.
After the game, coach Sasho Cirovski said there was a point where he thought the Maryland captain would be out for the remainder of the match. But Costabile never had a doubt about his status.
“He got me pretty bad. My ankle is pretty destroyed,” Costabile said afterwards, as red blood stains seeped through his white sock just above his swollen right ankle. “But I was like, ‘There’s no chance I’m gonna get out. I gotta finish the game. I gotta score a goal, and we’ve got to win today.’”
Costabile did all three.
Less than 10 minutes after Do’s reckless slide tackle, Costabile fired No. 4 Maryland into a 14th-minute lead with a left-footed strike that slipped between the goalkeepers’ hands. That first-half score proved crucial as Maryland took down Indiana, 3-2, at home on Friday.
It was the Terps’ (10-0-3, 6-0-2 Big Ten) fourth ranked win of the season, and they did so in front of over 5,800 fans — Ludwig Field’s largest crowd in over seven years.
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“That’s one of the biggest crowds we’ve had this late in the year in a long time,” Cirovski said.
Earlier in the week, Cirovski said he felt like the Terps hadn’t played up to their “level in possession” in recent games. Indiana’s high-pressing forwards made that issue difficult to correct in the first half.
Palmer Ault, Collins Oduro and Colton Swan aggressively fought to win possession from Maryland’s defenders. That culminated in Indiana taking the match’s first three shots before the Terps grabbed a more controlled share of possession starting around the 10-minute mark.
Costabile’s early conversion then kickstarted Maryland’s offensive blitz. The Terps took five shots in less than four minutes. Goalkeeper Judewellin Michel only saved one of those, though that’s all that was required from him.
Two of the attempts sailed off target, then senior Sadam Masereka nailed the crossbar with another look. Forward Stephane Njike also dribbled around Michel to create a shot, but took a few too many touches, allowing an Indiana defender enough time to race back and clear the ball off the goal line.
Over-dribbling has plagued Njike’s game at times this season. The sophomore is typically the most skillful player on the field. It’s a style that helped him amass five goals and four assists entering Friday.
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Much of Njike’s game is predicated on knowing when to pass, shoot or take another shot. It wasn’t fully clicking in Friday’s first half, but the sophomore found a rhythm after the break.
He assisted Masereka’s 58th-minute score with a 30-yard through ball, before chipping Michel in the 75th minute for Maryland’s final score of the evening.
“He’s still such an unpredictable player sometimes, and sometimes his own teammates don’t know when they might get on the end of a pass,” Cirovski said.
Njike’s goal was insurance at the time, but ultimately proved crucial given the Hoosiers’ heightened pressure over the final 30 minutes. Indiana turned that into a pair of goals, both of which cut two-goal Maryland leads in half.
Ault delivered the second of those two scores. He entered Friday with 14 goals — double the tally of anyone else in the Big Ten — and eight assists, but Maryland’s back line greatly limited his involvement.
The prolific forward had just two shots at halftime, neither of which threatened sophomore goalkeeper Laurin Mack. Ault’s goal in the 81st minute made the final stretch of Friday’s game competitive, but the Terps quelled Indiana’s late pressure.
Defensive potence had been Maryland’s calling card in nearly every game at Ludwig Field this season. Friday was the first time the Terps allowed multiple goals in a home match in almost exactly two months.
But in a complementary display, Masereka and Njike — Maryland’s top two scorers — provided timely second-half goals, while Costabile delivered a tenacious performance that spoke to the magnitude of Friday’s result.
